The invention relates generally to devices and apparatus for cooking foods. More particularly, the invention is embodied in a smokeless cooker that filters its exhaust gas through a HEPA filter.
Conventionally, in order to discharge the exhaust gas generated from a cooker disposed in a barbecue restaurant or the like to the outside, the cooker is connected to a duct, with a deodorizing unit connected at the downstream side of the duct. In general, a centralized duct system has been employed that filters oily smoke and odor out of the exhaust gas generated from plural cookers and discharges the exhaust gas to the outside.
Duct and deodorizing units of this general type require regular maintenance such as cleaning of the inside thereof and replacement of filters. However, since such maintenance requires a considerable expense, owners and operators of barbecue restaurants sometimes neglect to perform such maintenance services in a timely manner.
When such maintenance is neglected, however, a large amount of fat, oil, or the like may accumulate inside the duct and on the filters. A duct fire may happen when fire comes in contact with the accumulated fat and oil, which can catch fire inside the duct.
In addition to the above-described type connected to a duct to discharge exhaust gas to the outdoors, a non-duct type cooker of the type disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2002-95593 has also been used. The non-duct type cooker is equipped with a drain box, a suction fan, a filter, and the like inside the cooker body to clean the exhaust gas within the cooker body and to return the cleaned exhaust gas to the room in which the cooker is located. Since the non-duct type cooker is not limited in installation position inside the restaurant by the need to connect it to a duct, the freedom of layout is thereby increased.
In the conventional non-duct type cooker, however, since the exhaust gas is not satisfactorily cleaned inside the cooker body, it is difficult to completely remove the oily smoke and odor from the exhaust gas generated from the cooker.
In the conventional non-duct type cooker, moreover, the roasting smoke sucked from the vicinity of the roasting surface in the cooking section is filtered through filters or the like to clean the smoke, and then discharged into the room (inside the restaurant) through a discharge louver provided on a side wall of a cooker cabinet. Although the exhaust gas has been cleaned, it may still be somewhat hot since it has come from the roasting surface of the cooking section. Heat generated from the cooker is therefore concentrated around the discharge louver. When the cooker is used in a restaurant, a party hall, or the like, guest seats must therefore be disposed away from the discharge louver, and the possible layout of the guest seats is thereby restricted.